Accidents probably accounts for a fair amount of deaths, but don't you think the gun = security paradigm has to be challenged a bit when you look at the data? There has to be something wrong somewhere to get results that are so different from other countries when we look at the per capita data on weapon possession and death by gun.

More guns = more opportunities for accidents and violent death in the same way more cars = more opportunity for car accidents and road rage.

It is hard to conclude that, overall, guns = safety.

Actually, if you do a quick search states with more lax gun laws have more deaths based on guns. So, your assumption would prove out to be correct.

Not saying there are not counter points, there usually are, but Chicago to me is always a bad example when you can just drive a short ways to Indiana and get a gun without worrying about any of those laws and bringing it back.

It is one of the major issues with expecting States to do much of anything. Patchwork laws have major issues. Folks always complain about them but depending on the issue at hand there are major advantages to having a baseline.